Pro-Erdoğan columnist: Authorities should use child to make suspect father talk

Following the capture on Monday night of the suspected gunman who last week massacred 39 people at İstanbul’s Reina nightclub, a pro-government columnist, Cemil Barlas, urged authorities to do whatever is necessary to the suspect’s 4-year-old son, who was with him at the time of his apprehension, to make his father talk.

Writing a series of messages on his Twitter account, Barlas said the following: “The murderer was captured with his son. That kid should be used in any possible way to make the murderer talk. There is nothing ethically wrong [with that].”

After sparking outrage on social media, Barlas locked his Twitter account and prevented access to his messages.

İstanbul Governor Vasip Şahin announced on Tuesday that Abdulkadir Masharipov, who was arrested in a police operation on Monday night, has confessed that he perpetrated the deadly shooting.

His fingerprints match those found by the İstanbul police, the governor added.

Masharipov was apprehended in a joint operation carried out by the İstanbul police and Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) in İstanbul’s Esenyurt district.

Şahin said the attacker, codenamed Ebu Muhammed El Horasani Abdulkav, was born in Uzbekistan in 1983, was trained as a militant in Afghanistan and speaks four languages.

The governor noted that Masharipov likely entered Turkey illegally from an eastern province in January 2016.

According to the governor, “it is clear that [Masharipov] staged the attack on behalf of [the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant] ISIL.”